Oxford Business Law Blog

In 2021, Bitcoin has reached a crucial inflection point. At its peak in November 2021, Bitcoin traded at more than $69,000 in a trillion-dollar market. The year also saw El Salvador’s historic...

In January 2021, the price of Bitcoin rose from about $32,000 to $38,000 within a few hours, which corresponded to a $111 billion increase in market capitalization. This increase followed the...

The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to significant limitations on trade and travel, severe economic stress and massive state interventions. This has been reflected in the financial markets and led to...

A decade after the birth of Bitcoin, its governance has become increasingly contentious to the extent that even certain well-known proponents of the cryptocurrency declared that Bitcoin governance is...

Can anyone really own virtual tokens, such as Bitcoin, Ether, and Facebook’s anticipated token – the Libra? The advantages offered by these cryptocurrencies stem from their underlying technology – a...

Cryptocurrencies and their potential impact on central banking have sparked a policy debate on addressing their potential risks to the banking and monetary systems. By highlighting the functional...

The Digital Assets project, run through the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College, has produced an annotated English translation of the judgment of the Tokyo District Court in August...

Modern payment systems have changed considerably over the past decade. In developing countries, so-called ‘electronic money’, issued and used on mobile phones, provided a viable digital alternative...

There has been an explosion of articles in the popular press about the dangers of artificial intelligence (‘AI’). Some fear that machines with human-like intelligence could someday develop goals at...

Decentralized, permissionless and blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology are said to have as transformative an impact on value as the invention of the internet had on...

Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, have not only risen to public attention as novel means of payments. Rather, as we explain in a recent article, the current hype is fueled by financial...

Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), a term intentionally mirroring Initial Public Offerings (IPO), seem to be the new hype of the virtual currency community leading to an all-time high of the bitcoin of...

The Bitcoin blockchain has just forked into two rivaling chains; the same split happened to the Ethereum blockchain after its hard fork of July 2016. The development of these, and other,...

In a much-anticipated action, on July 25 the SEC issued a Section 21(a) report of its investigation into an offering of digital tokens by “The DAO,” an unincorporated virtual organization. Though...

The Platform of the Future? The survival of any organization depends on its ability to outperform competitors and marketplaces in attracting and rewarding talent, ideas and capital. As communication...

Recent events across the EU, and elsewhere in the world, expose growing attempts at implementing blockchain technology. This, combined with investment dynamics in the IT/fintech sector, raises new...